I am so excited that my sister has decided to join the Blogging Community!!! YAY
Check out her blog: The Pelfrey Zoo for a very comical overview of her crazy household.

I'm excited to keep up with their life now via blogging.

I just realized that I haven't really written on our blog in a while - a few jokes here and there, a Wordless Wednesday, but nothing really to catch everyone up on our life. (not that we're that exciting, but it's why I blog!)

Let's see...where do I begin? I think the last exciting thing we did was make the trip to Chattanooga for the second weekend in a row. We sponsored a really good friend and previous co-worker to attend Tres Dias, so we knew we would need to be in town for all of the "festivities." To make the deal even sweeter, we arranged to stay with our bestest buds in the world: the Moncriefs. Brittany and I had a little craft project to work on (more details later after they are unveiled to the appropriate party members) and of course our guys can always entertain themselves with each other. (literally - they just talk and hang out and love it. it's great) You can read Brittany's blog for a great layout of the day - including our escapade via bicycle to Crust, which was AWESOME. It was very invigorating to ride a bicycle (yes, it was made for a 4'11" person) down a 5 lane road to eat!! It was great and made me miss being around our unconventional friends the Moncriefs who challenge us to think outside the box when it comes to daily lifestyle changes that could positively affect our environment. (check out Jimmy's Ironman Blog - he does an awesome job of posting thought-provoking articles relevant to these issues)

I'm sure you're all wondering where Fletcher and Fiona stayed, right? (I know, you're all SOOOO concerned about them) They actually played with their Weimereiner buddy, Daisy, all weekend and LOVED it.

Sunday was wrapped up rather late in Chattanooga after closing ceremony for Tres Dias and dinner of course, so we got home pretty late. OH! I almost forgot - we got to meet the newest member of the UTC group (again, Brittany blogged about this already) and she is absolutely adorable. She's so dainty and just beautiful. Our friends Melissa and Dusty are going to be great parents and you can already tell in their adoration of their beautiful new daughter. Check out their blog, the Crane's Nest

Monday morning started with a lovely appointment at the Orthopaedic doctor. I've been having problems with my foot for several months now. I thought it might be plantar faciatis, so I kept putting off going to the doctor. Finally, the Friday before we went out of town, I was at work and something happened that I almost couldn't walk on my foot and there was a constant, sharp pain that was not relieved by any medications. It was time for the doctor....unfortunately.
They took x-rays and determined that where I broke my foot in several places waaaaay back in 5th Grade, one of my bones had been affected and healed improperly. This left me with extra bone off the side of my foot, but the pain is coming from the tendons attached to that bone that are now extremely irritated and possibly causing tendonitis.
So I left the office wearing a lovely "boot" that comes about halfway up my shin - it's lovely! I wear this thing for 2 weeks, go back to the doctor and see the progress. As of today, it's really not feeling any better. I have pretty consistent sharp, shooting pain in the foot and there's not much I've been able to do for relief. My next step in "treatment" are cortisone shots, which I'm sure will be lovely. Next step is surgery....

Other than that excitement Brent and I have been doing our usually weekly routine

Mondays: Continuing Education - Brent is continuing in his comedy writing classes and I just wrapped up my first Wilton Cake Decorating Course.
Tuesdays: We alternate attending Kairos and staying at home relaxing. (This week, it's staying at home)
Wednesdays: umm..ok not so exciting to have 2 nights in a row doing nothing, but hey - we love it.
Thursdays: Last Comic Standing is on tv and our household is pretty much revolving around comedy right now. Usually Brent watches the 2 hour show then uses it as inspiration to write some material, staying up until midnight or later depending on how he's doing.

So our life isn't that exciting, but we have fun - that's all that matters, right?!

We just found out there are some more touristy stuff to do, with the most exciting one being the tour of celebrity homes! We're going to check that out the next time we have visitors in town.

One day my housework-challenged husband decided to wash his Sweat- shirt.
Seconds after he stepped into the laundry room, he shouted to me, "What setting do I use on the washing machine?"
"It depends," I replied. "What does it say on your shirt?"

He yelled back, " University of Tennessee ."

And they say blondes are dumb.

"And then the fight started..."

When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her some place expensive....so, I took her to a gas station..... And then the fight started....
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After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's license to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home.
I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'.
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.
She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too'
And then the fight started.....
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My wife and I were sitting at a table at my high school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.
My wife asked,' Do you know her?'
'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.'
'My God!' says my wife, 'Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'
And then the fight started.....
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I rear-ended a car this morning.
So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car.
You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny?
Yeah, well I couldn't believe it.... he was a DWARF!!!
He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, 'I AM NOT HAPPY!!!'
So, I looked down at him and said, 'Well, then which one are you?'
And then the fight started.....

Gosh we've been busy! I have finally downloaded pictures from my camera today and realized how much stuff we've been doing the past week: instead of boring everyone with all the little details, I'll do a quick and dirty run down...

Friday, July 11th: Jennifer and Brittany came to Nashville for the day with their Brownie Troop to visit the Nashville Zoo and eat at the Rainforest Cafe (I know, neat idea, huh?). I was SUPER excited because I convinced Jen to stay with us on Friday night. To make things sweeter, I decided to use that as a great way to celebrate Brittany's birthday (it was on Saturday and we weren't going to be able to see her). I met Jen and Britt at Opry Mills and surprised Britt by taking her to Libby Lu. She LOVED it. So much in fact, here was her initial reaction once I had her uncover her eyes only to see the infamous store front:





Needless to say, she was surprised and excited and LOVED the entire experience. My only comments are, "Why didn't I think of that?!" It's a great concept - little girls get to come into this amazing "salon" to have their hair, nails and make up done and walk away with a gift. It's really neat.
Here are some more pictures of her getting her stuff done:

I loved these "stickers" on the side of her face: they're soooo very 'Gem and the Rockstars,' don't you think?! (btw: Brittany has no clue who she is....sad...very sad...)

And of course I missed it...I had wandered into the store to look at something and when I came back to tears in Jen's eyes, she had to tell me....oh well. Still very sweet. AND I have THE best niece in the world...not to mention she's pretty darn cute.

Post-makeover: aren't they cute?!

The Girls:

Needless to say, Brittany CRASHED into the bed that night - it had been a very long day for them starting around 6am that morning, visiting the zoo in 90 degree weather, eating lunch at Rain Forest, the Libby Lu experience, then a late dinner.
We had a great time and cannot wait for them to come back to nashville!

Saturday, July 12th: My aunt, dad and uncle had coordinated a surprised 80th birthday party for my grandfather in Chattanooga, so we packed up the car and headed to SIgnal Mtn for a little par-tay: Thornton family style. To make the event even sweeter, my aunt had arranged for my grandfather's 2 sisters from Memphis to surprise him - for whatever reasons, they hadn't all seen each other in over 5 years! My aunt also had all the grandchildren get up and say some things about Grandaddy - memories, funny sayings, etc. It was a lot of fun and not too many dry eyes when it was all said and done with. Here are a few pictures from the day:

Saturday, July 12th: That afternoon we headed off the mountain and met up with Brent's family to celebrate his mom's birthday at Longhorn Restaurant. We had a great time together enjoying a milestone birthday for her, then we headed to his parents house for a Whitaker rendition of the Newlywed Game. We had a great time - Brent and I packed up our stuff and headed back home to Nashville late that night.

Most of our time on Sunday was mostly spent like this...

That's right: Productivity at the Whitaker household has hit an all-time low as my husband has "invested" in Rock Band for Playstation2. WE LOVE IT!! I will say however, that we are in need of 2 additional band mates...any takers?

More posts to come as we've had a few "celebrity sightings" over the past 2-3 weeks...

I've been thinking about taking a cake decorating class for quite some time now. I have a mom and sister who are extremely talented at cake decorating: my mom's been doing it for over 20+ years now and she is awesome. My sister has never taken any classes and just started doing it a few years ago and I must say has given my mom some competition!

Mom's definitely taken the family market on some amazing cakes. She recently made a cake for my grandfather's 80th birthday that looked like a tropical island, but I must say she is really starting to get awesome at wedding cakes. She's making 3 different wedding cakes over the next few months and I can't wait to see the outcome.

The business mind in me would love to capitalize on my family's talent and open a business, but neither my sister nor my mom are interested. In looking to the future of potential profitable businesses, I thought now is the best time to start learning this profession in case I want to have it as a possible business venture. Who knows, maybe one day I'll be posting about the grand opening of my very own bakery: Becca's Bountiful Bakery ... ok so maybe I need help in a creative name.

Anyway, I'm hoping I have inherited the cake decorating genes, so I'm trying it by taking a few Wilton classes.

I was a little concerned that I wouldn't enjoy it because I tend to be WAY too particular about projects like this (it takes me HOURS to complete a scrapbooking page because I want it to look just a certain way). But I must say, this first cake isn't the best, but I did actually enjoy it. You'll see there was a LOT of different decorating elements, but the whole point in making this one was for practice. So I did just that: I practiced pretty much every techinique we've learned so far on this one poor cake.

I've made a mental note to practice the writing. It's a LOT tougher than it appears.

Next week it's on to creepy clowns....and if you've never seen them, I'm sure the anticipation is KILLING you.

This week I'm replacing Friday Funnies with a BIG announcement: There is a new UTC girl added to the clan: Emma.
Our really good friends, Melissa and Dusty, welcomed their new little girl into this world this week.
She was born on July 9th at 2:51 p.m. and she is beautiful. She is yet another adddition to the UTC girls which includes original members Jessica, Melissa, Kristi, Katie, Brittany and me and the newest additions this year are Ada and Emma.

We cannot wait to meet this precious little one - congrats you guys!

You would think after the past few days' events, we would just "chill" out - but no, we had to continue the roll of cramming in as much fun as we could on the holiday weekend. Sunday morning, we woke up early (early to me is before 8:00 on a non-work day) and headed to Smith Lake where the Whitaker's (grandmother) own a house. We had never made the drive from Nashville, so we honestly had no idea how to get there or how long it would take. In the history of the Whitaker Lake house, there have NEVER been written directions - everyone just knows where to turn, "By the old refrigerator." You see, this is C O U N T R Y - as in, the road names are "County Road 250" and "County Road 300." It's great. We love it.

Another factor to play into the directions is the fact that no one gets cell phone reception at the lake house. So even if we did need to call someone (parents, grandmother, aunt/uncle) because we were lost, we wouldn't be able to get them. Before Brent's parents got too far off the interstate, they called to tell us a few directions: exit name, signs to look for, etc. So we followed their directions....

About 30 minutes after getting off the interstate, we made our first gas station stop: for directions. (can you feel the tension in the car at this point?) I went in to look at a map and realized it would do me no good because I had no clue where were supposed to be going. I didn't know a "town" name. I didn't know a road/street name. I had no clue. I found out later that Smith Lake has over 500 acres of shore front - just to help you realize how dang huge this lake is.

We turned around and headed back to the interstate because in the time I was reading the map, Brent was able to get his aunt on the phone and we had taken the wrong exit and were a good 45 minutes away from the right exit. GREAT.

Long story short, we made it. I wrote the right directions down - the FIRST ever written copy of driving directions to the Whitaker lake house. (Let me know if you need a copy) And those directions include, "Turn right past the old refrigerator," because anyone who's been in the country, knows there's ALWAYS a good rusted refrigerator by the road to use as a landmark.

The weekend was a blast. We ended up having the house pretty much to ourselves: his aunt, uncle and cousin had to leave about 2 hours after we got there and his parents headed back after dinner that night. Sunday night and Monday morning we spent fishing from his grandmother's Bayliner boat which was pretty funny. Someone actually asked us if we needed a tow - it looks pretty funny to see a ski boat back in a slew fishing. We all had a good laugh about that one.

After a few hours of knee boarding and tubing, we cleaned up the house and packed up our stuff and headed back to Nashville. We had a great time, but we were pooped!!

The good news: it only take 2 1/2 hours to get to the lake house when you go the right way!

Here's Brent knee boarding:

And my father-in-law:

Sorry about this last one. it's such a great picture i didn't want to leave it off, but for some reason I cannot get it to upload the correct way...oh well. Here's Brent and his cousin, Lucas.

I spent part of the day on Saturday with Casey trying to tie up a few wedding details (she's getting married August 16th, so we are on the official countdown): wedding dress fitting and figuring out details for the reception - fun fun!!

Around 2:30 Saturday afternoon we (Casey, Brent and I) headed to LP Field for the concert of the year: The Poets and Pirates tour: Gary Alan, Leeanne Rimes, Sammy Hagar, Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney. It was a fantastic concert and we had a WONDERFUL time. We didn't leave that night until after 11:30 p.m. from the field - I just read an article that said there were over 50,000 tickets "cashed" in for the concert. The crowd was incredible - when we first pulled into the parking lot, we felt like we were at a football game because there were so many people tailgating. In fact, I just checked out kennychesney.com and there is an entire gallery dedicated to the tailgaters before each concert. It was definitely one huge party.

Welcome to Nashville!

I think the best words to sum up our 4th of July are: water, sun, food and friends.
Had a great 4th of July! Brent and I had already decided that we would spend the entire day at the pool - no matter what. Unfortunately, we woke up on Friday morning to overcast skies. Brent headed to the pool to reserve a few chairs for us because on a normal weekend we have problems finding a place to sit.

Getting into the pool has become quite the comical event. This is the second time that we have had to find a creative way to actually get inside the gate at our pool. You see, the management at our apartment entrusts a fellow resident to be the key holder for the gate - the pool is supposed to be opened by 10am every morning, but we're pretty sure that the key holder finds better things to do with his/her mornings than to get up early enough to unlock the gate for the rest of us unworthy residents.

Anyway, a few hours later (yes, I said a few hours - it took me a while to get going on Friday morning) we headed to the pool where we baked for a few hours, had an extensive (and entertaining) conversation with a couple that lives in our building, then headed back to the apartment to start cooking dinner. Casey came over for the day, then Marty and Johnny (Casey's best friend) came over for dinner that night and we had a great time. I was really proud of my ribs - this was my first time to barbeque my own ribs and I must say, they turned out really well. Brent was the grill master and thanks to his skills, they turned out fabulous!

We didn't end the night with the traditional fireworks - we actually just headed to bed early because we knew we had a jam-packed next few days.

Happy 4th of July!

A new pastor was visiting in the homes of his parishioners. At one house it seemed obvious that someone was home, he took out a business card and wrote "Revelation 3:20" on the back of it and stuck it in the door.
When the offering was processed the following Sunday, he found that his card had been returned. Added to it was this cryptic message, "Genesis 3:10."
Reaching for his Bible to check out the citation, he broke up in gales of laughter.
Revelation 3:20 begins "Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
Genesis 3:10 reads, "I heard your voice in the garden and I was afraid for I was naked."

Thursday night was so much fun! We went to downtown Nashville for a little "Battle of the Bands" hosted by the Hard Rock Cafe. Brent is coordinating a huge event for his work this fall, so he has several venues around town trying to schmooze him to use their place. Because of that, we scored some free "VIP" tickets to the Hard Rock Cafe. We were finally able to connect with our UTC buddies - Jess and Antonio - and they met up with us downtown. We had a great time eating and drinking for free in the nice air conditioning while listening to the bands outside. The winner of the competition got to open for the Poets and Pirates concert on Saturday night!http://hardrock.com/promo/nextbigstar/